Experience of Mosque - Assignment Example

Experience of Mosque First of all, mosques are regarded as the abode of the God within Islamic faith. In the Middle East, womenfolk pray at their houses and male folk make use of mosques for prayer purpose and for socialization. One can see that Muslims consider Friday prayer as most important and regularly attend congregation prayer services. My visit at the Islamic Center of Morgantown or ICM helped me to realize the importance of mosques within Islamic faith in general. As the ICM represents the immigrant population, most of the visitors are male immigrant students.

Besides, there is a separate arrangement at ICM for womenfolk to pray. I visited the ICM on Friday and attended ‘Jumuah’ prayer at 1.30 pm. Besides, I went through the prayer calendar to find out the exact time of ‘Jumuah’ because my religious faith is different from Islam. Besides, this helped me to attend the congregational prayer that started at 2.00 pm. One can see that mosques are flooded by believers on Fridays. So, I parked my car at Lot ST8 and walked to the ICM. Entering the mosque, I noticed that most of the visitors are students.

Besides, the only noticeable difference in dress is the cap or ‘Taqiyah’. But most of the visitors were not wearing ‘Taqiyah’. Besides, pants and t-shirt/shirt is the common dress among the visitors. So, one can see that there is no strict dress code implemented by the authorities because most of the believers are students. The mosque’s exterior is not so different from other buildings in the neighborhood. To be specific, the exterior does not represent the traditional mosques in the Middle East.

Entering the mosque, I noticed that the main hall used for prayer purpose is symbolic of modern construction because there are fewer symbols or images that signify Islamic architecture. But the only difference is that there is a separate facility for womenfolk to pray. Besides, the noticeable symbol of Islamic architecture within ICM is the ‘minaret’ type protrusion on the building. As the believers are aware of the rules within mosque premises, there are no strict rules to be followed at ICM.

Besides, silence during prayer time, proper dressing, ‘hijab’ (say, for womenfolk) are general rules. My conversation with an African American and an Indonesian student proves that they feel satisfied with the prayer services at the ICM. Still the conversation shed light into the differences between Islamic and Christian faiths. Renard (2011) states that, “In fact, a Christian attending services on Sunday could conceivably share more in his or her personal experience of God with a Muslim stranger who worships on Friday across town than with fellow Christians” (p. 90). To be specific, Muslims consider Friday prayer as most important and they never try to skip the same.

On the other side, excluding Good Friday prayer, Christians provide less importance to prayer in mosques on Fridays. Instead, Christians make use of Sundays for prayer purpose and proper socialization with other believers. Still there are so many similarities between these religious faiths because prayer and visitation are considered as utmost important. In short, my visit to ICM helped to mingle with people with a different religious faith. Besides, my visit helped me to realize the importance of prayer in religious belief and to identify the differences between Christian and Islamic faiths in general.

ReferencesRenard, J. (2011). Islam and Christianity: Theological Themes in Comparative Perspective. California, CA: University of California Press.